Political Careers or Career Politicians?

Andrea Mattozzi and Antonio Merlo

PIER Working Paper Archive from Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract: Two main career paths are prevalent among politicians in modern democracies: there are career politicians (i.e., politicians who work in the political sector until retirement), and political careers (i.e., there are politicians who leave politics before retirement and work in the private sector). In this paper, we propose a dynamic equilibrium model of the careers of politicians in a political economy with a private sector and a political sector, where individuals are heterogeneous with respect to their market ability and political skills. We characterize the conditions under which the two career paths emerge in equilibrium, and investigate the effects of monetary incentives and other features of the political-economic environment on the quality of politicians and their careers. Our analysis also provides a rationale for the existence and the survival of political parties.

Keywords: politicians; parties; careers in politics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 J44 J45 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2005-07-01, Revised 2005-12-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Political careers or career politicians? (2008)
Working Paper: Political Careers or Career Politicians? (2007)
Working Paper: Political Careers or Career Politicians? (2007)
Working Paper: Political Careers or Career Politicians? (2007)
Working Paper: Political Careers or Career Politicians? (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pen:papers:05-032

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